Dear Larry. My wife has just been diagnosed with stage III lung cancer. Prognosis with the current treatment is to live about 3-5 years. She has worked enough credits to qualify for social security when retiring at age 66-1/2. She is now only 58 and may not reach her retirement age. Also she has stopped working more than 10 years ago to take care of the kids. Is she eligible for any social security benefits at this time? If not, she may not be able to enjoy the benefit at all since she may not even live to age 62. Thanks for your information.

Hi,

I'm very sorry to hear about your wife's diagnosis. Hopefully, she'll be able to beat the cancer.

I really wish I had better news, but she probably can't qualify for any Social Security benefits until she is at least age 62. In order to be entitled to Social Security disability benefits, a person must have 20 quarters of covered earnings within the 40 quarter period leading up to the time they became disabled (https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/ProgData/insured.html). What this means is that if you count back 10 years from the time your wife's illness became disabling, she'd need to have worked and paid into Social Security for the equivalent of at least 5 of those years. Unfortunately, it sounds like that's not the case.

Best, Jerry